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The problem of finding the cause and the cure of encephalitis lethargica has
been brought no nearer to solution during the year. Children who are suffering
from the after effects of the disease have been admitted to the encephalitis lethargica
unit of the Metropolitan Asylums Board's Northern Hospital, Winchmore Hill, a
report on which appears on page 141 of this report. During the year a number of
adults who have suffered from the disease have been admitted to certified institutions,
as, for instance, the Manor Mental Hospital, but there are still many who cannot be
dealt with by this means. Attention has frequently been called to the necessity
for making some special provision for these cases, and negotiations have been carried
on between the Council, the Ministry of Health and the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, as a result of which it has been found possible to provide accommodation
at the Northern Hospital for 50 persons of 16 years of age and over who are suffering
from the after effects of encephalitis lethargica. Patients will be admitted to these
beds in May, 1929, and while it cannot be hoped, in many cases, that any treatment
will prove of a curative nature, it is hoped that the condition of the patients will be
improved during their stay and the relatives will be relieved, for a time at least, of
the burden of looking after these unfortunate sufferers who are so entirely unfitted
for the ordinary conditions of social life or for treatment in the general hospitals.
It has been arranged that admissions to these beds, as in the case of children, will
be secured through the Council or the metropolitan boards of guardians.
After effects
of encaphalitis
lethargica.
The deaths from influenza during 1928 numbered 590 as compared with 1,815
in 1927. Influenza was not epidemic in 1928, but during the last weeks of the year
there were signs of an epidemic in the north which later became general. In the
first quarter of this year there were 2,703 deaths, this being in excess of the deaths
in this period in any year since the great epidemic of 1919. The maximum number
of deaths was recorded in the eighth week, and this falls midway between the time
at which it might have been expected on the hypothesis of the periodicity of Dr.
Stallybrass (the 50th week of 1928), and that of the late Dr. Brownlee (the 15th
week of 1929) but it is within three weeks of the time assigned by the periodicity
described in the annual report of the medical officer for 1925 (p.36).
Influenza.
The epidemic was remarkable for the high concurrent mortality from diseases
of the heart and respiratory system, and also for the excessive mortality at the
higher ages. The following figures show how the epidemic compares with that of
1919:—
Deaths.
Influenza. Disease of the Diseases of the
Heart. Respiratory System.
1919—1st quarter 3,487 2,296 5,468
1929— 2,703 5,599 7,018